Telling of God’s faithfulness

I have spent the last couple of weeks with my family – our daughters, son-in-laws and grandchildren. Some of the time was spent in our home along with a few days in the mountains of West Virginia. Throughout our time together, I found myself sitting back in utter amazement at the family God has blessed us with. Each couple is uniquely different and approaches life from their gifting and personality. Even though there is great love among us – it takes much grace to put 10 adults and 4 children (ages 6, 3, and two 1 year olds) under the same roof for a few days.

During our times together, usually our daughters start reminiscing about family memories and our son-in-laws have been with us long enough to be included in these stories. Bill and I occasionally share (ok, so I probably share more than occasionally) stories from our past. Throughout all of these memories is the evidence of God’s faithfulness, of our history being His story — telling of His purposes and plans for us individually and as a family.

Psalm 78 tell God’s story of faithfulness to Israel, the ways God had provided and saved His people. “He planted a witness in Jacob,set his Word firmly in Israel,Then commanded our parentsto teach it to their childrenSo the next generation would know,and all the generations to come—Know the truth and tell the storiesso their children can trust in God” Psalm 78:5-6

Sharing stories of the past, laughter at the silliness of childish behavior (and parents who made wrong decisions), memories of grandparents who were such a part of our life, first dates/son-in-laws asking for a daughter’s hand in marriage/weddings ~ each recollection reminds us how God had been faithfully leading in each situation. Many of these stories were told after the little ones were tucked into their beds at night, but in years to come, they will be old enough to add their chapters to this family story and to listen to the memories.

One of my favorite statements from our time together, came from one of my son-in-laws … “I am so glad that this family is not too wack-a-doodle.” I love his words and I took them as a great compliment. By God’s presence in our family’s life, we have emerged as just a little crazy, but “not too wack-a-doodle.” We have memories to share and are making new ones for the next generation of littles ones we love so dearly.

Stories we heard from our fathers,counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.We’re not keeping this to ourselves,we’re passing it along to the next generation—God’s fame and fortune,the marvelous things he has done. Psalms 78:3-4